Smart Tinkering – Part II

Guess after the echo of that post about smart home stuff, I guess I have to deliver another shot:

This time it’s a bit more practical. Speaking of a Raspberry Pi II being used to emitting noises every now and then by playing MP3 files which got some API open to be (ab)used.

Last post was about presence detection. So I made up my mind again and found out that the only device really knowing who’s there is my good ol’ and trusty WLAN controller by Ubiquity. Due to his API I was able to determine if a phone is home by about 5-10 minutes – which is absolutely great for me as I wouldn’t want to be ‘away’ while picking up the newspaper at the doormat.

Now taping it all together using python and cron I was able to create some kind of a central switch. Adding some Google-fu, I was able to hook into my neato botvac too (Hey, there’s an API for that!)

Putting all of the bells and whistles in place I went out shopping for parts when suddenly my botvac alerted me of having a new map of my rooms. A clear sign that it was running. When I got home, even the music was silent – which makes me assume that the script actually worked; A 200h+ playlist running out that suddenly would be kind of awkward, would it?

To sum it up: Smart-Home doesn’t really have to be that smart as it’s just a couple of if-then chains kicked off by several events. On the other hand it means, that you just need some kind of an API to do stuff. But is that really ‘smart’?